Business Law

Assignment: What are the main differences between a 'tort' and a 'crime'? Can the same incident be both a tort and a crime? And find an example to illustrate your understanding.

Answer: A tort is ‘a civil wrong other than a claim for breach of contract’ and for which a right of civil action for damages may arise. It is an act or mission of the defendant that creates an infringement of an interest of the plaintiff that the law will recognize and which involves the plaintiff proving on the balance of probabilities that their version of the facts is the more believable. However, a crime is an offence against the state. A tort is not the same thing as a crime,although the two sometimes have many features in common. The distinction between them lies in the interests affected and the remedy afforded by law. A crime is an offense against the public at large,for which the state,as the representative of the public,will bring proceedings in the form of a criminal prosecution. The civil action for a tort,on the other hand,is commenced and maintained by the injured person,and its primary purpose is to compensate for the damage suffered,at the expense of the wrongdoer.

But from different views, the same incident can be both a tort and a crime as well. For example, traffic accident created by drunk driving. On the injured party’s side, the defendant belongs to the infringement, because of the defendant's negligence and failed to prevent the occurrence of accident in time caused the plaintiff losses (including the physical and the economic). On the public side, It belongs to the crime. Drunk driving is a behavior which endangers the social security and the interests of the vast majority of the people.